Current Sources of False and/or Misleading
Information About the Foreskin and Circumcision

"Informed consent is consent given in full awareness
of all the known facts and considerations that could
influence one's decision to give or to withhold consent.
Consent given without that awareness is misinformed."
John A. Erickson

One could fill an entire website with sources of the false and
misleading information about the foreskin and circumcision that
"experts" and "authorities," abetted by the media,
have been systematically purveying to a trusting,
unsuspecting American public for more than a hundred years now.
Indeed, the history of the foreskin and circumcision in the U.S.
is a history of false and misleading information.
The purpose of this page is to document that false and
misleading information
about the foreskin and circumcision is still being propagated.

If these "experts" and "authorities" aren't aware
of the information on the Checklist below, why aren't they?
If they are aware of it, why do they withhold it?
If they aren't aware of it, they are not experts.
If they are aware of it but withhold it,
they are guilty of deception by a deliberate act of
omission -- which, in medicine, constitutes malpractice.

The question, then, is: Are those who disseminate
false and/or misleading information about the foreskin and
circumcision, and those who continue to circumcise children
and babies, ignorant or lying -- or both?

CHECKLIST (Information essential for informed choice)

The bottom line -- the one consideration that outweighs all other
considerations combined -- is that infant circumcision is foreskin
amputation by force. When you circumcise a baby, you are cutting
off a part of his penis that you can cut off only because the
person you're cutting it off of can't protect himself because he
is a baby. Compared to this one essential consideration,
the points listed below are really "side issues."

Erogenous functions of the foreskin
Protective functions of the foreskin
Immunological functions of the foreskin
Possible functions of the foreskin not yet known or understood
Intact males glad their sex organs are whole and intact
Value intact males place on their sexual wholeness
Circumcised males who would rather their sex organs were
whole and intact
Circumcised males who have re-covered or are in the process
of re-covering their glans ("foreskin restoration")
Pain
Risks/complications/consequences of circumcision
(death, total loss of penis)
Possible risks/complications/consequences of circumcision not yet
known or understood
What is lost
Trafficking and marketing of foreskins of circumcised human babies
Books, videos, organizations, and websites with accurate
information

NEWSPAPERSThe New York Times (John/Joan -- withheld the fact that the
baby's penis was burned off while he was being circumcised)
The Washington Post (John/Joan -- withheld the fact that the
baby's penis was burned off while he was being circumcised)
The Wall Street Journal (John/Joan -- withheld the fact that
the baby's penis was burned off while he was being circumcised)